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Category: Tesla

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has again been forced to defend himself and the company. Fortune has accused Musk of withholding material information regarding a fatal car crash until after a billion dollar stock offering.

Journalist Carol Loomis claims that Musk knew that an Ohio man died from an accident while his Model S was in autopilot as early as May 7th. Musk did not disclose this information to the public until June 30th. Twelve days earlier, the company sold $2 billion in stock to investors.

Loomis claims the information regarding the accident was material to investors and should have been disclosed before the offering. Musk vehemently disagreed.

The CEO took to twitter to bash Loomis’ report, calling it “BS”. Tesla also posted a message on its website in which it claimed that Fortune rushed to print the story before it had all the facts.

In terms of the repercussions, the public appears to be in Musk’s corner. While Loomis feebly claimed that a small drop in Tesla’s stock price on the morning after the news went public mildly suggested materiality, the shares rallied higher that same day and gained nearly 2%.

Musk has defended the company’s timeline in disclosing the information, saying that Tesla was unable to complete its own investigation until the end of May.

In addition, Musk noted that the accident was not caused by the driver of the Tesla but rather a semi-tractor trailer that crossed lanes and into the path of another vehicle.